Demetra Evangelou

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Associate) at Democritus University of Thrace

This chapter presents an early engineering curriculum for the PreK classroom, justifies the developmental appropriateness of the curriculum by presenting relevant research studies, and concludes with the introduction of an observation protocol to be used by class teachers to identify and evaluate engineering learning. In early education engineering...

Children's free play naturally enhances skills of observation, communication, experimentation, as well as development of rationale and construction skills. These domains, while synthesised, can lead to the development of certain process models regarding the way constructions could be designed, built and improved. The Design Process model constitute...

The study presented here focuses on the development of an early education Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum with emphasis on engineering. This article presents the teacher's experience as she undertook the task of familiarising herself with the new content and using the curriculum in a university based lab-school cl...

Background: The newly formed discipline of engineering education is addressing the need to (a) enhance STEM education for precollege students and (b) identify optimum ways to introduce engineering content starting, perhaps, from the early ages. Introducing engineering at the Prekindergarten through 12th grade (PreK-12) education level requires sign...

The results of the Community Child Care Research Project provide new data describing the child care experiences of low income working families in 4 communities in Indiana. Because the study participants were volunteers rather than randomly selected, and because the research design was correlational rather than experimental, conclusions drawn from t...

Individuals differ in their orientation toward the people and things in their environment. This has consequences for important life choices. The authors review 15 studies on Person and Thing Orientations (PO-TO) using data from 7,450 participants to establish the nature of the constructs, their external correlates, and their predictive utility. The...

Industrial firms dependent on their developed engineering knowledge base lament the loss of years of accumulated capability as Baby Boom generation engineers fade into retirement. Looking for ways to retain this institutional learning, the notion of knowledge transfer between engineers of differing generations offers an opportunity to maintain comp...

Inherently a discovery-based pedagogy, Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble (DAA) activities start with the artefact, an instance of a typically well-engineered solution. Through systemized disassembly and the subsequent analysis of components, students engage in an iterative process of observation and follow-up probing. In-turn, this process helps student...

Previous theory and research suggests that individuals selectively orient primarily toward the social environment (people) or toward the physical environment (things). These orientations can be conceptualized as motivation-based complexes that influence personal preferences and interests, with consequences for important life choices. This paper exa...

As hydrologists confront the future of water resources on a globalized, resource-scarce and human-impacted planet, the educational preparation of future generations of water scientists becomes increasingly important. Although hydrology inherits a tradition of teacher-centered direct instruction - based on lecture, reading and assignment formats - a...

Background Undergraduate research is a gateway to academic careers. Understanding student perceptions of research, and links to sex differences and personality, may shed light on the small proportion of women in undergraduate engineering programs and academia. Purpose (Hypothesis)How do personality variables and beliefs about research influence men...

Although there is an increasingly interest for people to become technologically literate, there exists a technical knowledge gap between industry needs and workforce competencies, especially in developing countries such Colombia. That is why technological skills such as troubleshooting need to be developed. Moreover, learning technology skills may...

As engineers of the Baby Boom generation retire from their career posts, novice engineers are entering the workplace. Workforce transformation and loss of strategic corporate knowledge underscore the need to generate understanding regarding engineering norms aiding or impeding knowledge transfer. While research exists regarding how Millennials lear...

As hydrologists confront the future of water resources on a globalized, resource-scarce and human-impacted planet, the educational preparation of future generations of water scientists becomes increasingly important. Although hydrology inherits a tradition of teacher-centered direct instruction - based on lecture, reading and assignment formats - a...

Personal interests are a key element in encouraging careers in engineering. Evidence suggests that a lack of interest may contribute to the underrepresentation of women in engineering. The purpose of the current research was to examine differential orientations to people and things among college students and their relations to academic majors and c...

Geared towards serving underrepresented minority (URM) students who are on Master's or Ph.D. tracks in engineering, the Reinvigorating Engineering and Changing History (REACH) Scholars and the Midwest Crossroads Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program focus on enhancing the recruitment, retention and enrichment of these...

Ethics is a crucial aspect in developing the professional identity of engineers. Most undergraduate engineering curricula offer little opportunity for teaching and learning ethical behaviors, responses and attitudes in a systematic and pedagogically appropriate manner. This paper presents findings from a pilot study conducted in the Spring semester...

The role of engineers in public policy can be seen as a twofold endeavor: (1) to help create public policy related to the utilization of technology to solve public problems as well as monitor and assure compliance with such policies; and (2) to use engineering knowledge to assist in the construction of policy directives to help solve social problem...

This synthesis paper explores current leadership training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Bulgaria. The analysis begins with discussion of global factors influencing the implementation of leadership training in STEM education in general and then presents information about the current status of leadership trai...

With the increasing proliferation of scientific knowledge and technological artifacts into society comes an increased need to regulate these artifacts and their use. The development and implementation of such regulations and laws in many cases requires both a technical understanding of the functioning of these artifacts and an understanding of how...

Children's experiences in early childhood have significant lasting effects in their overall development and in the United States today the majority of young children spend considerable amounts of time in early childhood education settings. At the national level, there is an expressed concern about the low levels of student interest and success in s...

Background Reverse engineering and product dissection, more broadly termed Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble (DAA) activities, have been a regular practice in industry. The systematic analysis of the benefits of these activities for learning and instruction is, however, a relatively recent phenomenon. A number of studies have provided highly descriptive...

B ackground Engaging future engineers is a central topic in everyday conversations on engineering education. Considerable investments have been made to make engineering more engaging, recruit and retain aspiring engineers, and to design an education to prepare future engineers. However, the impact of these efforts has been less than intended. It is...

Students often graduate from a major other than that in which they first enrolled. A large proportion of this migration happens within engineering with students moving from one discipline of engineering to another. Some students migrate within engineering several times. While there has been extensive examination of why students leave engineering, v...

The developmental importance of play in early childhood is well documented. However, little research exists to date to describe how child play relates to engineering thinking. The goal of this study is to determine whether spontaneously occurring classroom play and involvement with open, semi-structured and structured artifacts such as sandboxes, w...

BACKGROUND Engaging future engineers is a central topic in everyday conversations on engineering education. Considerable investments have been made to make engineering more engaging, recruit and retain aspiring engineers, and to design an education to prepare future engineers. However, the impact of these efforts has been less than intended. It is...

Interest has emerged as an important factor affecting the recruitment and persistence of engineering students. In this study interest is operationalized as a differential orientation to persons called Person Orientation (PO), distinguished by an interest in interpersonal interactions, and an orientation to things called Thing Orientation (TO), dist...

The focus of this paper lies in the understanding of the experiences of five scholars from underrepresented groups in the Reinvigorating Engineering and Changing History (REACH) Program using a case study framework. Fieldnotes of the REACH scholars' activities and meetings and one-on-one interviews with REACH scholars were the main data sources to...

One means of investigating the unique relationship between engineers and things is using thing orientation. Research has demonstrated that engineering students display higher levels of thing orientation than students of other majors, and that thing orientation is strongly predictive of persistence in engineering. However the nature of thing orienta...

Engineering education for the pre-college years is a developing discipline. To date there are no curricula available for the preschool level. Focus of this study is on the development of an early engineering curriculum that will complement the traditional emphasis on developing basic literacy, numeracy, and science along with social, emotional, and...

Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble (DAA) activities involve the systematic deconstruction of an artefact, the subsequent analysis, and possible reconstruction of its components for the purpose of understanding the embodied fundamental concepts, design principles and developmental processes. These activities have been part of regular industry practice for...

National debate about K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has given rise to questions about appropriate materials for engineering education from prekindergarten through grade 12. Introducing engineering in the early years entails recognition of the need for teachers to understand its content and poses the challen...

Exploratory learning is recognized as a developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education. During exploration, exposure to new things guides children in the acquisition of knowledge, while interactions with a range of familiar and unfamiliar artifacts can support developmental integration. Exploratory activity may occur spontaneousl...

Many engineering schools are proactively responding to the challenges of globalization, including by enhancing their international profiles and developing global educational programs and initiatives. Some schools are placing particular emphasis on preparing engineers for practice in dynamic, global workplaces. Yet what abilities and qualities defin...

The question of the importance of interest in gaining and retaining students is relevant in all professional fields. In recent years interest has emerged as a significant factor in encouraging students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. If students choose fields of study which match their interests, they...

When introducing engineering into P-12 classrooms, teachers' preparation and support becomes a crucial factor. The advent of the Internet brought a shift and an extension of how teachers receive professional development and how they prepare for courses. While the professional development offered by universities and school districts provides the maj...

The number of students enrolling in engineering has declined steadily over the last fifteen years, and the number of engineers joining certain fields in engineering has decreased even more drastically. A number of studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between students’ interests and abilities and their persistence in engineering. It is th...

Recent research on career interest in children and college students (Evangelou et al., 2008) has identified large gender differences in how interested men and women are in person and things (person-thing orientation, PTO, Little, 1972). These differences lead to differences in interest in STEM and nonSTEM careers for men and women. The current rese...

Οι ομάδες μικτής ηλικίας αποτελούνται από παιδιά με ετερογενείς ικανότητες και διαφορά ηλικίας μεγαλύτερη από ένα χρόνο. Αυτές οδηγούν τους εκπαιδευτικούς να μη χρησιμοποιούν μονοσήμαντα προγράμματα που να υποχρεώνουν όλα τα παιδιά σε μια δεδομένη στιγμή να ασχολούνται με την ίδια δραστηριότητα. Επειδή οι έρευνες δείχνουν ότι οι τάξεις μικτών ηλικι...

Success for today's engineering students will depend on their ability to work with people of many cultures and experiences, to innovate creative engineering solutions to increasingly complex problems, and to develop innovative business and technology strategies using creativity and sensitivity as they navigate increasingly complex environments and...

The newly established Greek National Curriculum for kindergarten is examined within a historical and cultural perspective. Perceptions of education, schooling and teaching in the Greek culture while rooted in centuries of tradition have been shaped by the demands of modernity and the idealism of visionaries. The analysis takes into consideration is...

The term Renaissance Engineer can be used to describe an engineer, who in addition to mastering the technical competencies required of the profession, also has a command of other disciplines beyond those of mathematics and science. Engineering practitioners with a broader knowledge base will be better able to cross disciplines to understand the con...

The need for reformation of the engineering curriculum taught in most American colleges has been a big topic of discussion, as is evident by the number of journal articles and conferences dedicated to the topic. The terrorist activities that occurred on September 11, 2001 have brought a greater awareness of the vulnerabilities that exist in the wor...

If students choose an engineering major which makes the best use of their skills and engages their interest, they are more likely to not only stay, but thrive in the field of engineering which they choose. Various institutions have recognised this and initiated programs which introduce students to the various engineering disciplines before they are...